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I have been taking testosterone injections for about 6 years following a prostate surgery and infection. I have never had a problem with my testosterone blood test; all have been normal...until now. The results are twice normal.The only difference I can think of that might have caused this is 2 months of steroid injections in my back for pain. Could these injections have affected my blood test or kicked up my testosterone?

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5 Replies |Watch This Discussion | Report This| Share this:High T LevelsI have been taking testosterone injections for about 6 years following a prostate surgery and infection. I have never had a problem with my testosterone blood test; all have been normal...until now. The results are twice normal.The only difference I can think of that might have caused this is 2 months of steroid injections in my back for pain. Could these injections have affected my blood test or kicked up my testosterone?

Anytime you are receiving hormone therapy, your doctor should be conducting MONTHLY tests to make sure the hormone balance is staying within acceptable parameters. A blood test however is an overall medical failure as far as I'm concerned. A saliva test is both easier, can be initiated at home, and is THREE times more accurate. Whomever was treating you for pain should have been made aware of your hormone therapy. And it should also have been caught if a problem, within those two months of steroids by your needed monthly check on hormonal balance.I don't know what condition you had surgically treated in your prostate, but there are many contraindications for hormone therapy with specific prostate health concerns.There's not enough information here to assess the root cause of the imbalance. And clearly the doctor doing testosterone injections isn't doing their job properly if they're monitoring you with blood tests.

Thanks for your Reply!

Report This| Share this:High T LevelsAnytime you are receiving hormone therapy, your doctor should be conducting MONTHLY tests to make sure the hormone balance is staying within acceptable parameters. A blood test however is an overall medical failure as far as I'm concerned. A saliva test is both easier, can be initiated at home, and is THREE times more accurate. Whomever was treating you for pain should have been made aware of your hormone therapy. And it should also have been caught if a problem, within those two months of steroids by your needed monthly check on hormonal balance.I don't know what condition you had surgically treated in your prostate, but there are many contraindications for hormone therapy with specific prostate health concerns.There's not enough information here to assess the root cause of the imbalance. And clearly the doctor doing testosterone injections isn't doing their job properly if they're monitoring you with blood tests.

Just a slight possibility:Do you always take the tests the same amount of time after your injections, and how often do you inject? If say, you inject every two weeks(like most no-nothing doctors put people on), if you took the test the day or two after, your levels would be jacked that high or higher. This is something I have personally experienced, until I started injecting every couple days, which helps with keeping aromatization low as well.

Either way, Counterso is right in that most doctors that give hormone therapy don't know the first thing about it and I'm sure you can find a better doctor, though there are only a handful you really want. My situation got much better after I did the same.Ask your original question at:

Not to jack the thread but there is definite disagreement on salivary androgen testing. some pretty important people (my doctor included)in the hormone replacement field feel that the only thing saliva is good for testing is adrenal hormones Are you saying 3 times more accurate because it's giving snapshots throughout the day???.

Report This| Share this:High T LevelsJust a slight possibility:Do you always take the tests the same amount of time after your injections, and how often do you inject? If say, you inject every two weeks(like most no-nothing doctors put people on), if you took the test the day or two after, your levels would be jacked that high or higher. This is something I have personally experienced, until I started injecting every couple days, which helps with keeping aromatization low as well.

Either way, Counterso is right in that most doctors that give hormone therapy don't know the first thing about it and I'm sure you can find a better doctor, though there are only a handful you really want. My situation got much better after I did the same.Ask your original question at:

Not to jack the thread but there is definite disagreement on salivary androgen testing. some pretty important people (my doctor included)in the hormone replacement field feel that the only thing saliva is good for testing is adrenal hormones Are you saying 3 times more accurate because it's giving snapshots throughout the day???.

I'm saying saliva testing is more accurate for testosterone because it measures free T, not just total T. The serum test only measures total T, so there is a lack of a reference point to interpret that single number.

A comprehensive hormone test includes both serum and saliva components. Only some hormones have a significant shift through the day (like Cortisol), which are the ones that would be collected at multiple intervals (4-6) when you use a comprehensive kit. Testosterone is not one of those that needs to be measured at different times of day. Many hormones are fine to read in serum only because the desired information is available and definitive that way. If a saliva test is available for a particular hormone, it is most likely that there are additional factors that makes this data important.

Report This| Share this:High T LevelsI'm saying saliva testing is more accurate for testosterone because it measures free T, not just total T. The serum test only measures total T, so there is a lack of a reference point to interpret that single number.

A comprehensive hormone test includes both serum and saliva components. Only some hormones have a significant shift through the day (like Cortisol), which are the ones that would be collected at multiple intervals (4-6) when you use a comprehensive kit. Testosterone is not one of those that needs to be measured at different times of day. Many hormones are fine to read in serum only because the desired information is available and definitive that way. If a saliva test is available for a particular hormone, it is most likely that there are additional factors that makes this data important.

Vik, a saliva test includes a blood spot, it is not done alone. Sorry if I implied that it was one or the other. I was railing against blood spot alone, saying that you needed the accompanying saliva test to have a cross-reference.

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Report This| Share this:High T LevelsVik, a saliva test includes a blood spot, it is not done alone. Sorry if I implied that it was one or the other. I was railing against blood spot alone, saying that you needed the accompanying saliva test to have a cross-reference.

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